Case studies

PwC: investing in apprenticeships for future growth

PwC, a global multinational professional services organisation, has been running a Higher Apprenticeships Programme since 2012, offering experience within their Consulting, Assurance, Deals and Tax practices. Over the course of their programme, PwC have found that shaping the apprenticeships around key milestones, finishing with a graduation ceremony, focusses the energies of the apprentices and creates multiple opportunities for recognition and reflection. Each apprentice is allocated a people manager who provides them with pastoral care as well as professional guidance and performance monitoring. Quarterly focus groups give the apprentices a chance to share their thoughts and make suggestions to assist with the programme’s ongoing development.

The programme began as an extension of the work that PwC does with school leavers. It has been an enormous success, with the intake number increasing from 60 in the first year to an expected 150 in 2015. Apprentices from the first cohort have even been integrated into the graduate scheme. In fact, they have found that there has been a higher retention rate across the apprenticeship scheme than the graduate scheme.

PwC has a strong emphasis on people, and this scheme gives the organisation a chance to recruit exceptional talent as early as possible. They have a high investment policy in their employees for their first five years with the firm, and this is reflected in the Higher Apprenticeship Programme.